High speed projecting machine



- March 27, 1934.'

A. D. -ElrzENr 1,952,748

HIGH SPEED PROJEC'TING MACHINE Filed oct. 15, 195o ATTORNEY. y

Patented Mar. 27, 1934 UNITED STATES HIGH SPEED PROJECTING MACHINE August D. Eitzen, Rockville center, N. Y., assigner to News Projection Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application October 15, 1930, Serial No. 488,725

10 Claims. (Cl. 178-(12) 'This invention relates to stock quotation projecting machines in general and more especially to stock quotation projecting machines operated at high speed.

Among the objects of the present invention,

it is aimed to provide an improved stock quotation projecting machine in which the quotations printed on the tape will be moved into the projecting position as quickly as possible and whereby at no time during the quotation reporting period will any portion of the tape containing quotations remain at rest between the ticker and the light aperture before being projected but will always during this reporting period be fed into the light aperture as rapidly as the speed ofthe machine will allow. It is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved stock quotation projecting machine in which the tape during the quotation reporting hour will constantly be advanced through the ticker'and projected without any rest so that the quotations transmitted by the ticker and printed on the tape will be advanced into the projecting machine as quickly v as possible and the last quotation printed by the ticker before a period of rest can under no circumstances be lost between the ticker and the projecting machine during'such period of rest of the ticker.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved stock quotation projecting machine including a high speed ticker ofthe type in use today by means of which approximately ve hundred characters per minute a5 are printed during the printing operation of the ticker whereby the tape is fed through the ticker andn projecting machine by an external tape feeding device synchronized in its rate of speed to correspond with the speed of the printing opera- 40 tion so that the printed matter is receivedon the taper while the tape is moving through the \printer.

it is still another object of the present invention to provide an improved tape smoothing device to maintain the tape smooth at the light aperture in an improved stock quotation projecting machine whereby the last character printed by the ticker prior to a period of rest of the ticker will be advanced through the projecting machine while the ticker is at rest so that the characters immediately preceding a period of rest of the ticker will at no time be lost between the ticker and the projecting machine in a critical period of the market.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method to report the images printed' on a tape and that no images are being transmitted, consisting in projecting the printed matter on a tape after it has been printed to report a -message and in projecting the blank portion of the tape when no message is being transmitted.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved method whereby the end of a message such as astock quotation cannot be hidden or lost to view betweeny the printer and projecting machine consisting in feeding the tape both when the printer is operating and at rest so that the message or quotations will be projectecl'immediately after they are printed and 70 the end of the message or series of quotations will be brought into projecting position even though the ticker is at rest.

These and other features, capabilities and advantages of the invention will appear from the subjoined detail description of one specic embodiment thereof illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of a stock quotation projecting machine made according to the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

In vthe embodiment shown, there is provided a support l, having a high speed ticker 2 of the type today extensively used by the New York Stock Exchange which can be operated between approximately three hundred characters per mins ute to nine hundred characters per minute which is provided with a tape roll 3 from which the tape is fed through the -feedrolls 4 to the type wheel 5 and from there to the linger 6 at the end of the arm 7 pivotally mounted on the bracket 8 formed on the extension 9 of the lamp housing 10.

The extension 9 is provided with the usual light aperture 11 across which the tape T passes to 95 the tape pulling roller 12. Preferably the enl trance end of the light aperture 11 is provided with two rollers 13 and 14 between which the tape T passes to the light aperture and the exit end of the light aperture is likewise provided with two 100 rollers l5 and 16 throughwhich the tape passes upon leaving the light aperture and before passing to the tape pulling roller 12.

The tape pulling roller 12 is preferably mounted onthe shaft of a worm wheel 17 in mesh with 105 tained in frictional engagement with the tape pulling roller 12 by the weighted roller 25 pivot- 'ally mounted as indicated at 26 to the housing 20.

From the tape pulling roller 12, the tape T passes to the rewind reel 27 which is mounted on the shaft 28 journaled in the housing 20. The shaft 28 is provided with a sheave 29 connecte'd by the spring belt 30 with the sheave 31 on the shaft of theyworm wheel 17. 'I'he tape pulling roller 12 will be constantly travelling but its connection with the motor 24 and the rate of speed will be approximately the same as the ordinary rate of discharge of the high speed ticker 2.

In the present instance, the feed rollers 4 of the high speed ticker 2 are separated or held open, that is not in operation so that the tape feeding action imparted to the tape will be solely imparted to it by the tape pulling roller 12. Furthermore, this tape pulling action will continue even when the ticker 2 is at rest so that the last character or characters printed by theticker 2 prior toa period of rest cannot be lost between the ticker 2 and the light aperture 11 butimmediately proceed on its way to the light aperture 11 and be there positioned for projection,

' eventhough the ticker 2 at this time'will remain at rest.

The high speed tickers today in use print approximately at the rate of 500 characters per minute. Each cycle of operation for printing a character comprises selecting the type, printing .on the tape and feeding the tape. 'I'he printing action is apparently the shortest of the cycle so that the printing operation consumes about .0005

minute per character, or approximately .03 second per character. We also know by actual test that the tape is discharged from the printer during normal printing operation at the rate of about 62 inches per minute. In checking back we nd that since the-distance from center to center of successive characters is about one-eighth of an inch on the tape so that 8 characters can appear Within an inch, when we'multiply 8 by 62 We obtain the figure 496, a figure very closely approximately 500, the approximate number of characters per minute printed by the high speed tickers when under normal operation. From this calculation, we find that the tape discharged per second would beabout 1.03 inches from which it would appear that during the time that a character is printed, to wit .03 second, an infinitesimal part of tape would be moving, to wit only .03 inch.

It would thus be apparent that, if at all, the tape would slip but slightly, to wit .03 inch relative to the typeduring this period, and this distance of slippage would be so small that it would be invisible to the eye; With regard to the time .03 second allotted to the printing part of the cycle in this calculation, consideration should be-glven to the fact that this includes the time required for the printing hammer to approach the tape and recede therefrom, in addition to the period of contact. From this, it would thus appear that the moment of contact of the tape between the type wheel and printinghammer is considerably less than .03 second. ASince this is the only moment when any resistance is offered to the free passage of the tape, it is thus apparent that the amount of slippage occurring, if any, is so slight as to be incalculable. However, vwhen it is `considered that the elasticity in paper tape or cellophane is fairly high, the yield would easily compensate for this slight retarding action imparted to the tape during the printing movement and consequently qstill less slippage would take place between the tape and the type. Consideration should also be taken of the fact that the type today used on the high speed tickers is composed of a yieldable substance, such as rubber and consequently the slipping tendency of the tape would also be taken up by this rubber type.

- From the foregoing, it would thus appear that due to the yieldability of the tape, to Wit paper, cellophane or the like and possibly also the yieldability of the rubber type, when the momentary contact is considered, to wit the movement of less than .03 inch of tape in less than .03 second, that so far as the eye is concerned, the vibration transmitted to the tape would be invisible. It would thus appear that the vibration transmitted to the tape would result in longitudinal vibrations that would be absorbed by the tape pulling roller as quickly as formed. This will be particularly apparent when consideration is taken of the length of tape which is subjected to the pulling tension of the roller 12 which extends from the type wheel 5 through the printer and projecting machine, to wit a length of about 10 inches more or less. 'I'here is no tendency to transmit lateral waves to the tape since the tape at the point of contact with the type wheel is moved by the printing hammer less than .0156 inch, the hammer in the high speed ticker moving less than .03

inch in all and of course consuming about onepoint, even such slight vibrations will be eiectively ironed out by the linger 7, rollers 13, 14 and rollers 15 and 16, so that the portion of the tape appearing at the light aperture 11 will be smooth and even at all times.

The finger 7 co-operates in a rather unique manner with the feeding action 'to prevent the slippage of the tape relative to the type wheel whenl contact is made between the type wheel and printing hammer, since during this momentary lag if any, the finger 7 will yield so that the loop formed by the finger 7 will be taken up momentarily to compensate for the resistance offered by the momentary contact of the tape between the type wheel and printing hammer. As a result of the movement of this finger 7 the velocity of the tape across the light aperture will remain constant. j A

From the foregoing, it will also appear that since the feeding rollers -4 which'are generally .knurled rollers are kept opened, the serrations ordinarily imparted to the tape by such rollers will not be so imparted, and since the tapepulling roller 12 is disposed at the discharge end of thev light aperture 11, so far as a single strip of. paper is concerned, there will be no need of the tape being subjected to any gripping action by the tape pulling or tape feeding means before it passes through the light aperture 11. On the other hand, the tape pulling roller 12 and pressure roller 25 are smooth faced rollers so that even at the discharge end of the aperture 11, no serrations will be formed on the tape.Y Consequently, the tape if made of a washable stock, such as a slow burning fllm stock, can be subjected to a washing treatment after passing 'through this machine and re-used, no serrations whatever being formed on the tape.

aperture 11 is similar to the optical system extensively used with this type of projecting machine. In the lamp housing 10, there is mounted a lamp 3-2 having a reflector 33 from which the light passes through the condensers 34 and 35 to the mirror or deflector 36 at the bottom of the extension 9 from which the light passes up to the light aperture 11 at the upper end of the extension 9.

From the light aperture ll, the light and resulting images pass up through the objective lens supported in the lens holder 37 mounted at the end of the bracket 38 secured to the extension 9. From the objective lens the light passes up to the mirror 39 and is then deflected onto the mirror 40 and from there deflected to the screen 41.

It is obvious that various changes and modiiications may be made to the details of construction without departing from the general spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a printer, of a tape pulling device, and a motor independent of said printer for continually actuating said pulling device for continually pulling the tape through the printer both during printing and nonprinting.

2.'The combination with a printer, of an independent tape pulling device engaging the tape after it leaves the printer for pulling it through the printer both when printing and when not printing, a rewind for receiving the tape as it is supplied by said pulling device, a motor independent of said printer, means operatively connecting said motor to said pulling device continually to actuate said pulling device at a uniform speed, and a slippage device operatively connecting said rewind to be actuated with said connecting means in order to compensate for the increasing speed transmitted to the rewinding action of said rewind as the diameter of the tape roll on said rewind increases.

3. The combination with a printer including a tape advancing means, of means for anchoring the tape advancing means out of tape engaging operation, an independent tape pulling device for drawing the tape through the printer when said tape advancing means aremaintained in inoperative position, and a motor independent of said printer for continually actuating said pulling device whether said pulling device is transmitting a message or not.

4. In a stock quotation projecting machine, the combination with a printer, of a tape adapted to be pulled through said printer, means for deilecting/ the tape into a loop when said printer' operates, and for ironing out the vibrations transmitted to the tape by the printer, and a tape pulling device for drawing the tape through the printer both when printing and not printing, the loop formed in the tape serving not only to iron out the vibrations transmitted to the tape by the printer but also to form a yieldable reserve slack to be drawn upon by the pulling device when the tape is momentarily arrested by the printer during the printing impression thereby in turn reciprocally to facilitate the formation of a momentary p eriod of rest by the portion of thetape 4receiving the printing impression during the printing action.

5. In a stock quotation projecting machine, the combination with a printer, of a tape smoothing device for ironing out the vibrations transmitted thereto by the printer, and a tape pulling device4 for drawing the tape through the printer both when printing and when not printing, the Atape smoothing device consisting of a lever engaging the tape and deiiecting the same to form a yieldable reserve slack to be drawn upon by the pulling device when the tape is momentarily arrested by the printer during the printing impression thereby in turn reciprocally to facilitate the formation of a momentary period of rest of the portion of the tape receiving the printing impression during the printing action.

6. The combination with a high speed printer, adapted to print not less than five characters per second and consume not more than .20 second A per tape engaging printing contact, of a tape pulling device for drawing the tape through the printer and projecting mechanism at a speed not less than three hundred characters per minute both when printing and when not printing.

'I` The combination with a high speed printer, adapted to print between ve and fteen characters per second and consume on the average .l2 second per tape engaging printing contact, of a tape free to be drawn through said printer both when the printer is operating and when at rest, and a tape pulling device for drawing the tape through said printer both when the printer is operating and when at rest at a speed substanreported by the lengths of blank portions of the tape.

9. The combination with a high speed motor driven printer in which the tape feed is disabled, of a tape pulling device independent of said printer, and a motor independent of said printer actuating said pulling device continually to pull the tape through the printer both during printing and non-printing.`

10. The combination with a high speed motor driven printer having a tape feed, pf means for disabling said tape feed, a tape pulling device independent of said printer, and a motor independent of said printer for continually actuating said tape pulling device continually to pull the tape through the printer both during printing and non-printing.

v.AUGUST D. EITZEN.

so that the periods of rest of the printer will be 

